Luangpu Buddha Issara leads farmers on a siege of GLO

Officials of the Government Lottery Office were abruptly sent home on Friday after Luangpu Buddha Issara led farmers on a siege of their office.

The monk demanded that the GLO use money raised from lottery sales to buy 100 tonnes of rice from farmers or at least fix the results of the next lottery draw.

The monk said the GLO must fix the first prize of the next lottery draw to be the license plate number of a truck carrying the rice if GLO refused to buy the rice.

After failing to get an answer, the monk had the rice dumped in front of the GLO and surrounded all gates. GLO workers then stopped working and returned home.

The monk led a procession of trucks, vans and farm trucks with 100 tonnes of rice from the Chaeng Wattana rally site at 9 am.

He demanded the GLO pay Bt12,000 per tonne for the rice.

The GLO chief legal officer Winai Wutthidet to come out to negotiate with the monk. Winai told Luangpu Buddha Issara that GLO Director Atthakij Thareechat was absent on a foreign trip. Winai promised to raise the farmers' demands with the GLO board of directors.

The monk however ordered the trucks to dump rice in front of the office immediately and vowed to continue to rally there until the demand is met.